Unique Melody reached out to me a few weeks ago, wanting to send me something for review. After much discussion, most of which was figuring out which IEM of theirs fell in line with my listening preferences, we landed on their flagship, 12-driver per side UIEM, the Maestro V2. I took receipt of it today and, although there is a bunch for me to do right now, they've spent the remainder of their time in my possession in my ears.

I was surprised at how small the package I received was, at first. Although this may not be standard packaging, as these are in specifically for review, I thought it was worth pointing out that they came to me in a very solid, very heavy, machined aluminum puck. It has a screw off lid and a rubber insert in the top to help with its seal. I'm a big fan of this, as I can already tell that this isn't going to leave me with any worry of these being damaged in transport. They came with a pair of foam tips that (thankfully) fit me well, and offer great isolation.

The cable is braided, with a standard triple-braid above the Y-splitter and a very pretty sextuple-braid below. The TRS 1/8" auxiliary connector is similarly heavy as the case is. It isn't all too large, but is certainly larger than the vast majority that I've seen recently. It seems to be very solidly built.

The IEMs feature a carbon fiber faceplate, with the UM logo featured in the center. Although the shells of these IEMs are large, they fit well in my ear, and I haven't yet noticed any discomfort yet.

Now to sound. These are marketed as pretty close to neutral, with which my ears initially agree. The first thing that struck me was the punctuality. Although a spectral decay diagram is not provided by their website, I'd expect that waterfall to be very steep; great control of transients, attack, and decay is apparent. Bass is very well-controlled, with great presence and slam, when called for. The mids are sweet and lean towards lush, but still come across with pretty good impact, remaining fairly natural. The treble extends very, very high with seemingly no effort, lending a great deal of space and air to this sound signature. Cymbals are particularly well-defined and natural-sounding. These really a joy to listen to, at least initially.

I'll continue to refine my opinion and listen more to these headphones over the coming weeks, and come back in my full review with a much more well-rounded and less scatter-brained perspective.